Napolitano halts Mexico fence plan

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has put the brakes on SBInet, the $3 billion plan to build a virtual fence along the U.S. border with Mexico.

“Not only do we have an obligation to secure our borders, we have a responsibility to do so in the most cost-effective way possible,” Napolitano said in a statement Tuesday. “The system of sensors and cameras along the Southwest border known as SBInet has been plagued with cost overruns and missed deadlines.”

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With that in mind, Napolitano is withholding funding for the program’s first deployment until a review she ordered in January is finished. And she’s taking away $50 million in stimulus funds from the Boeing-managed program. Instead, that funding will be put toward “other tested, commercially available security technology along the Southwest border.”

The project’s halt comes amid rising violence along the U.S. border with Mexico that has Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) urging Americans to heed the recent State Department travel warning to delay visits to the Mexican states of Durango, Coahuila and Chihuahua.

The move also comes about a week after the DHS inspector general found more problems with the project.

Responding, Boeing spokeswoman Jenna McMullin said the company has always recognized the importance of developing the program quickly and affordably for Customs and the Border Patrol.

“We are fully committed to delivering border security technology that successfully assists them in their mission, and we will continue to support the Department of Homeland Security as they examine the future of securing the nation's borders,” she said.

It’s not the first time, though, the virtual fence has been singled out. The program was a problem child during the Bush administration, and its woes have recently resurfaced.

Napolitano had signal changes recently in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

“I am not satisfied with SBInet,” Napolitano said, adding at the time that the first section would be completed.

“But before we go across that border with this – these big towers, SBInet,” she added, “we are going to reevaluate how those technology dollars are used and whether there are other technologies perhaps that have been developed since SBInet was contracted that would be more mobile, better, easier to maintain and easier to operate.”